HP's 7 language Consumer Support Communities have been growing at an astronomical rate since they were launched, just a couple of years ago. It is so INSPIRING to see how many members now contribute regularly to the HP Forums and in other social media venues. These Experts are so dedicated, helpful, passionate, friendly, and they really Make a Difference in the lives of so many HP customers. These individuals continue to share their vast knowledge and expertise, showing incredible commitment to this Community and to HP.

We've explored many ways to reward and thank our top Experts, and we decided that the very best way to celebrate these extraordinarily talented people would be to escape from the virtual world for just a moment.

Today, many of the top forum Experts, representing all 7 languages of the HP Consumer Support Forums, are now arriving in San Francisco for the first ever HP Social Support Summit (S3)!

The group will be meeting in person for the very first time on March 21-23 to celebrate our successes and grow our knowledge for the future. The HP Social Media Consumer Support Team has some very exciting announcements to share, and our Experts will get a first peek.

During this HP-organized three day Summit, members will learn about a wealth of computing, printing, support, and social media topics. We'll discuss everything from Notebook Diagnostics, to ePrint, to Google+ Circles, to Rich Media, to Windows 8, to HP Cloud, and much, much more.

Top contributors will visit HP Headquarters, HP Labs, and the HP Garage, and they'll learn advanced skills, talk about new products, provide feedback, share ideas, and even hang out with some of HP's top execs. Attendees will be able to get their hands on the hottest new devices, such as the HP Spectre, and they'll even have an opportunity to win one!

Here's what some of the Experts are saying:

Daniel_Potyrala: "I am excited about the whole event. This is a great chance to meet many people who share the same passion as me, and I will learn how to become better contributor."

Big_Dave: "As a retired IT professional, I am very excited to be back into the thick of it again! The recognition by HP for my contributions is extremely rewarding to me as a personal accomplishment, and the free trip, hotel, food and meeting fellow colleagues is just to big to pass up."

Vidya: "I am excited to be a part of the HP Social Summit Forum where I look forward to meeting all my fellow enthusiasts who believe in “making a difference." I feel very strongly about HP products as they are positioned to win in the market. This Summit provides a platform to share and celebrate the success."

erico: "I am looking forward to attending the 2012 HP Social Summit in San Francisco and Palo Alto, California. It will be a wonderful opportunity for me to meet some of the interesting people I chat with online. I hope to find the answers to questions that I have on some subjects that forum members ask about frequently. Finally having the time to see where the PC revolution all began will be interesting. I have always wanted to visit the HP garage. Leaving the small village in the Netherlands where I live for a brief visit to San Francisco also has its own appeal. I am looking forward to enjoying sourdough bread, microbrew beer, California wines and exploring the region."

DexterM: "I'm excited to meet and interact with our ingenious community of Super Users and HP Experts from all over the world, and to celebrate our invaluable contributions and achievements to HP Social Media."

We can't wait to meet everyone in person to finally put faces to the screen names! If you'd like to check out the events online, be sure to look for the #HPS3 tag on Twitter and follow @HPSupport for live tweeting.

We warmly welcome you to San Francisco, Experts! Let's get this thing started!

All I can say is WOW! The forum was such a great opportunity to meet folks I have been working with here for years, to trade ideas and learn best practices. The speakers were excellent, the activities were fun and the organization and logicstics were really well done. Kudo's to all of you who made this possible.

I really had a great time. I met many interesting people and found San Francisco to be an interesting and spectacular place. It was nice to finally meet my colleagues in the forum. I also hope that the Social Summit happens on a yearly basis.

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